Negative Man vs. Radioactive Man – Marvel vs. DC #34

Origin: Negative Man

When working for the United States Air Force, Larry Trainor crash landed an experimental airplane into radioactive waters giving him powers. He joined the Doom Patrol as the Negative Man along with other outcasts.

1st Appearance: June 1963

Identity: Negative Man

Alter Ego: Lawrence “Larry” Trainor

Occupation(s): Former test pilot

Team Affiliations: Doom Patrol

Origin: Radioactive Man

After Thor destroyed Doctor Chen Lu’s and the Chinese government’s radioactive experiment on people for superhuman creation, he decided to repeat the process, but this time with himself as the one taking in the power. The experiment became a success and Chen took on the name Radioactive Man.

1st Appearance: June 1963

Identity: Radioactive Man

Alter Ego: Chen Lu

Occupation(s): Nuclear physicist

Team Affiliations: Masters of Evil, Titanic Three, Thunderbolts

Powers & Abilities: Negative Man

“Soul-Self” is Larry’s radioactive self projection of a man that generates the powers of:

Flight

Phasing

Energy Absorption – redirect energy into minor explosions

Concussive Blasts

Powers & Abilities: Radioactive Man

Radiation Absorption – can redirect it

Radiation Control

Flight

Strength

Durability

Healing

Genius-Level Intellect – Ph. D. in nuclear physics

Battle!

Now let’s see which character would really win. Negative Man has to project his “Soul-Self” which I like to call Radiation Avatar to fight with all the matching powers of the opponent. The avatar can absorb any attacks Radioactive Man will throw at him not to mention he is intangible meaning he could phase through many punches or blasts. He can also shoot concussive blasts so Larry seems to be in a pretty good position. Radioactive Man can do a lot of the same things such as the absorption of radiation and the ability to redirect it. He himself can shoot more than just concussive blasts. He can shoot blinding blasts, heat blasts, protective blasts and hard radiation blasts. So many blasts! Take that Sega Genesis (High 5 if you get the reference). There are a lot of them, but like mentioned earlier both of these characters can absorb these attacks and redirect them at each other providing a constant never ending cycle. Basically the longest game of catch.

Negative Man using his astral projection

We need to look at things that hurt our two active characters. Radioactive Man has super strength and with his most basic level of radiation levels he can lift at least 2 tons, meaning if he absorbs more of the radiation thrown at him his strength will grow as well. Instant win, right? Not really. As discussed earlier Larry Trainor can phase through objects or people so he can easily dodge those attacks. What Radioactive Man could do to hurt Larry is use his ability to control any other radiation without problem. Chen has mastered his powers to such extent he can increase and decrease his power levels. It doesn’t end there. He can also do the same to other people so, if he wanted to he could get rid of Negative Man’s entire ‘Radiation Avatar’. It comes with some effort, but with the reach of his powers Chen Lu would end up successful in the end.

Once he gets rid of Negative Man’s ‘Radiation Avatar’ then he can go attack Larry’s simple human form which is much more vulnerable. In actuality Dr. Chen Lu doesn’t need to go through all that work because if during the fight he brings all the puzzle pieces together to find out Larry Trainor is vulnerable when fighting with his astral projection, he could just attack the physical human body which would automatically get rid of the astral projection and mark victory. It’s very plausible especially that Chen Lu has a genius level intellect. But let’s be fair here and what if Negative Man does somehow find a way to attack Radioactive Man? Chen Lu could counter that with healing or use his powerful force fields for defense/protection.

And before someone decides to cry and scream for this to be a mismatch because Negative Man can only use his astral form for 60 seconds or else he faints, you might be forgetting the fact that Larry Trainor did develop a habit of being able to stay in his form longer than a minute. Not meaning to sound negative or anything, but it seems DC will be biting the dust on this one.

WINNER: Radioactive Man (Marvel)

Hopefully this outcome gave you a good reaction and that you leave a suggestion for the next fight in the comments preferably with characters I haven’t used yet. If you can only come up with one character I haven’t done yet, I’ll come with a second character to match yours. Check out the Marvel vs. DC Archive to see which characters I did use. Until then see you next week!

Next Week: Riddle Me This, Some Would Consider Her a Joke, While the Other One Sucks Life Out of Everybody